1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information device and an information presentation method for presenting an input character string candidate corresponding to a situation in which the information device is located.
2. Description of the Related Art
With regard to a mobile phone or an information device such as a mobile PC or PDA connectable to a network such as LAN and having a character input function, many functions for supporting a user in the information input have been proposed in the past. The conventional character input operation method has been proposed, for example, in which the information such as the name of a place or an event is acquired from a regional information server based on the information device position information obtained from GPS and presented in priority to the other wording as a predicted character conversion candidate corresponding to the partial character string input by the user thereby to reduce the labor of inputting the character string related to the particular place or region (see JP-A 2003-303186 (KOKAI)).
Assume, for example, that the position information shows that the information device user is currently located in Suwa area. In the case where the user inputs the character “Su”, the character string candidate “Suwa-ko (Lake Suwa)” contained in the regional dictionary data is presented to the user in high priority order. The methods are proposed and known in which a character string tied to the position information is presented as a candidate based on the frequency of use and access. In one method (see JP-A 2004-153398 (KOKAI)), unlike in JP-A 2003-303186 (KOKAI), for example, the region is not fixed, but in a way adapted to the user, an inquiry is given to the information server based on the position information of the information device and the input candidate information arranged in the order of access frequency is selected from the character input information data recorded in correspondence with the position information and presented to the information device. In another method (see JP-A 2006-350904 (KOKAI)), the character input conversion dictionary is switched in accordance with the position of the information device and the input frequency is counted for each position, thereby providing the character conversion information adapted for the scene of use.
The techniques disclosed in JP-A 2003-303186 (KOKAI) and JP-A 2006-350904 (KOKAI), however, are typically based on the assumption that the user memorizes the name of the region or the event (though a part of the character string), as the case may be, from the leading character string. Specifically, as long as the user has no knowledge of the character string which can be a clue, the intended character string becomes more difficult to specify. In the general practice of character string input, the efficiency of the character string input operation as a whole may be adversely affected by the constant appearance of the character string related to the position information in a high priority order of candidacy. Further, according to the techniques disclosed in JP-A 2004-153398 (KOKAI) and JP-A 2006-350904 (KOKAI), the input character candidate corresponding to the past frequency of input or access for each region can be presented. The use of the frequency information, however, makes it difficult for the initial user in a given region to enjoy the advantage of the particular technique.